


Vocabulary

by Genuinelies



Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan
Genre: Blitzstone, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-20
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-27 08:20:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5041024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Genuinelies/pseuds/Genuinelies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mixed messages can hit hard when they're left to interpretation, and you only expect the worst. A fluff-without-plot (smidgen of angst) Blitzstone fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vocabulary

**Author's Note:**

> A big thank-you to [ skyrat ](http://archiveofourown.org/users/skyrat/pseuds/skyrat) for betaing this! 
> 
> I'm still not comfortable with my grasp of these two, but I <3 them so much!

It’s weird how we can spend two years together as homeless bums in Midgard and Blitz still doesn’t realize it.

 

 He’s extremely perceptive when he wants to be, don’t get me wrong. Annoyingly so, even. It’s one of the drawbacks to being deaf – more than the obvious, more than the family dishonor, more than the issues during battle with people screaming out warnings when I can’t hear them – too much attention gets focused on me. At least when it comes to Blitz and occasionally Magnus. That means every unintentional quirk on my face becomes scrutinized, and often, Blitz nails the meaning.

 

Yet two years on the street, and still…

 

I’d caught on to our nicknames, the odd mouth here and there forming “mom” or “dad”. I don’t mind. I feel like Magnus’ parent after all this time, but really, he’s not that much younger than either of us. A life on Midgard is more sheltered than a life in the other realms, though. There’s more ignorance to be had.

 

I’m jealous of that, sometimes. But I wouldn’t trade my suffering for it.

 

I finger the pouch of runes absentmindedly, and watch Blitzen at his worktable in Magnus’ room in Valhalla.

 

There are spells, of course. But that type of magic is empty, and comes at a cost.

 

I think the lesson there is that if it’s not real, it shouldn’t be had.

 

Real love exists without you in it. Isn’t that why I gave everything up? My love of magic was worth the sacrifice.

 

My 90-minute session in Asgard had been enlightening. I wanted to know more. I would always want to know more. But I could feel the power of my new knowledge coursing through me, and I was giddy with it.

 

When the cup began to fill again, and it already had, would the Gods require me to tip it over?

 

That was the question that had always been on my mind, because since meeting Blitzen, and later Magnus and then Samirah, the filling was inevitable.

 

Blitzen turned suddenly in his chair. I could see the movement of his fingers behind him, tapping the pencil on the desktop.

 

“I can hear you.” His lips turned down on the words.

 

_Unlikely,_ I signed, knowing what he meant.

 

_Your eyes are burning right through this admittedly stylish jacket,_ he signed back at me. He said it out loud, too, substituting where the ASL failed to measure up. I could see his shoulders slump in a sigh.

 

I wondered not for the first time if he also felt the inadequacy of communication between us like a gaping chasm. ASL does its purpose, but at times like that I would have liked to have the words spill from my mouth like spells, so I could finally get everything off my chest and have a shot at convincing him.

 

It’s just a dream, though.

 

Here I would have added, ‘like so much of my life.’ Except at long last, Mimir’s promise had finally born some fruit. I would never be powerful enough to satisfy my yearnings, but it was a start.

 

_You seem different,_ he signed at me.

 

_You will, too,_ I said back. _When you open the best clothing store in the nine realms._

 

He blushed. Inwardly (hardly ever outwardly, if I’m honest) I smiled. One of my small pleasures. I doubted Blitz realized his dark skin flushed that adorably.

 

But something must have shown on my face, because Blitz was searching my eyes. He put his pencil down, and turned his face from me for a moment, looking out the glass windows.

 

Magnus was off somewhere with Samirah. This was a palace compared to the bridge and streets of Boston, compared to many places, but sometimes the dirt becomes part of you. In some ways, those two years were my happiest memories. It was hard, and demeaning, and disgusting, but for a little while, that life was home. I would take it over my actual home in a heartbeat.

 

How long would this one last?

 

Suddenly Blitzen’s shoulders straightened. I tensed. It was his, ‘I’m about to say this thing that neither of us will like, but tough luck,’ posture. I was not a fan. It usually preceded statements about my health or future plans.

 

If it was usually in the vein of my best interests?

 

Desires and best interests don’t always go hand in hand.

 

Blitz turned toward me again, his jaw set and his dark eyes determined. His meticulous eyebrows were set straight across his forehead, just beneath a worry line I knew gave him anxiety. It worried him more than his crooked nose, for some reason. The son of Freya’s skin was otherwise smooth and unmarked, and he took a little too much pride in his appearance. It was the kindness in his eyes and his heart that I –

 

He stood, then walked toward me. Unable to help myself I leaned into the back of the couch.

 

Just like that he deflated. His hand rubbed the back of his head. The merry twinkle came back in his eye.

 

“Hey, Hearth,” he said, then signed, _You hungry?_

 

Maybe I overreacted. Maybe he was just about to tell me that my scarf was crooked, or I needed to tweeze my eyebrows because that one hair was driving him nuts. Not that he had ever criticized my appearance before, but there’s a first time for everything.

 

Or a second time, even. I felt my cup tipping back over, its contents spilling everywhere irreverently.

 

My hands still, inside my own head, I completed his sentence properly. _Hey, Hearth. You know how we did that thing with Magnus, and now Mimir doesn’t own us anymore? Yeah, well. About that. When do you think this whole travelling-together thing should end? Now? Yeah, me too. Thanks, buddy. It’s been real._

 

I staggered to my feet. Should I just hold on as long as I could, even knowing what was to come?

 

I’d been lucky, really, having a real family for this long.

 

Oh, Magnus was still my brother. And Samirah had become family too, in her own way. Call me a coward, but I just didn’t think I could wait around to actually hear it come from Blitz’s lips.

 

_He made you a sun-bed,_ I told myself doubtfully. _We’re sitting here together in Valhalla. Why would he change his mind?_

 

“Hearth?” Blitz asked, frowning. “You’re worrying me, buddy.” I really was. His fingers were plucking at his clothes, too nervous to sign.

 

_What’s it say?_ Blitz asked with a jerk of his chin toward my hand, making me realize I was holding a rune between my trembling fingers.

 

Looking down, I saw that I held Jera, the rune of completion or cycle.

 

I wanted to drop it, but that’s not how it works.

 

_Nothing I wasn’t expecting,_ I answered.

 

_Yeah, well, sometimes your expectations are crap, buddy,_ Blitz signed back.

 

I gave a slight nod of my head. Yeah, they were. That doesn’t mean they’re wrong.

 

Blitzen stepped into my personal space and put a heavy hand on my arm. “You want to talk about this?”

 

I turned the stone over in my palm. My other hand settled lightly on his fingers. His eyes were startled.

 

Too much? Maybe that was too much. We both worked with our hands so much, Blitz to create, I to communicate, to cast spells, to _live_ , that it probably felt more intimate than it should have to both of us.

 

Blitz suddenly stepped back, and from the guilty look he cast over my shoulder I guessed the door had burst open.

 

Sure enough, Magnus and Sam came tumbling into the room. Magnus’ face was red from laughing, a sight that warmed my heart. Sam looked drily amused and not at all murderous, which was also a vision for sore eyes.

 

Bltiz shot me a warning look. _We’re not done talking about whatever – this – was,_ he gestured subtly with his pointer finger between us.

 

I gave him a small smile, which might have taken him more aback than all the rest.

 

Magnus and Sam both began to sober upon looking at me, not a good sign. I darted forward and pulled them both into a hug. My eyes scrunched closed, but I felt both of them move their lips against my clothes, trying to say something I couldn’t hear.

 

Blitz began yanking me back from them by the waist. I brushed him off, but he’s a dwarf. Their reputation isn’t for nothing. Their arms are as strong as the metals they forge.

 

_What are you doing?_ Magnus signed at me frantically.

 

Finally, I held up the rune for everyone to see. I gave a one-shouldered shrug.

 

Blitz paled, as much as his skin would allow. “That can’t mean what you think it does.”

 

_You were about to say it,_ I signed at him.

 

He paled further, a feat that I would have thought impossible, except I had seen him face his mother Freya before when she was being particularly demanding. He began stammering things off in ASL, but I covered his hands with mine. Angrily, he shook them off. _That’s not what I was about to say at all, you stupid Elf!_

 

I smiled at him for real then. I turned to the others. Magnus and Sam were both shaking their heads. _I’ll see you,_ I signed, and meant it. I just needed a little space. I was sure I would even see Blitz before too long. But he was going to open his shop and make his dreams come true. I would be underfoot, and it would pain him trying to avoid cutting me off for all eternity. That would be worse, knowing he was irritated with me, but felt too bad to send me on my way.

 

Blitz was shaking me by the arms, but I avoided looking at his lips, not wanting to see what he had to say.

 

Suddenly Magnus punched me in the shoulder.

 

_Hey,_ he said, _I thought we were brothers! Family!_

 

I nodded. I yanked my hands up enough to sign awkwardly around the rune, _Always._

 

_You’ll be back?_ He asked, warily now.

 

I nodded.

 

_Like Helheim he will!_ Blitz let go long enough to sign, then latched on again.

 

I patted Blitz’s side. He was huffing with whatever he was trying to get me to see. One of the benefits of being deaf? Not having to hear your best friend tell you kindnesses when they really want to tell you to get lost. He looked at my fingers, his face red.

 

_Thank you,_ I told them, and crushed the rune.

 

__

 

At one point, having another person attached to me while I was casting would have messed up the spell, but Odin’s workshop had grown my skill exponentially. It was pretty efficient for a 90-minute session.

 

Despite feeling like I had swallowed ash and darkness and the entirety of the Ginnungagap, a spark of joy still coursed through me. Magic came more easily now. There was a time when I would have found myself falling into Svartalfheim, instead of under the bridge in Boston.

 

Just like that, what I had just done bowled me over. I must have looked like any other homeless human getting off of a bad trip, clutching my stomach and shaking with tears that I couldn’t hear, but that were nevertheless probably echoing off the walls and making any mothers up above on the street run in the other direction.

 

Why had I come here? It had felt like home in my memories, more so than the plush halls of my birth family’s manor. That was so short-sighted of me. What had I been thinking? This was a rough and unpleasant life. The few friends and acquaintances we had on the streets had been born of necessity. You stick together to survive, not out of actual caring.

 

No, this place or any other felt like home because Blitzen had been with me. I had a feeling even Helheim would have been made tolerable if he were by my side.

 

I’ve felt stupid many times in my life, but I think this might have been the worst. I should have held onto the svartalf until he had to physically remove me. Since he never would have had the heart to do that, I could have drifted beside him indefinitely.

 

But what was that I had said about love? It has nothing to do with us. Not if you mean it.

 

So my cup was empty again. There should have been some part of me that was happy about that, that could see that it meant I might have room to grow even more powerful. Isn’t that what I had wanted, above all else?

 

Had wanted.

 

Had.

 

My fingers went to my striped scarf, _his_ striped scarf, and I curled up in the dirt, my cheek pressing into trash.

 

___

 

A boot in my side had me startling awake, shivering from falling asleep outside with nothing but my usual leather jacket and no garbage can fire. In a breath I had a rune in my palm.

 

The kick hadn’t been hard, I belatedly realized. I looked up in panic to see Blitz standing over me, with Magnus and Sam like two angry cats behind him, waiting to pounce.

 

Blitz’s face was worse. Behind the scowl, his eyes were pained. _What the Helheim is this?_

 

“Come on,” Sam said. “We’re going home, Hearthstone.”

 

Whatever they saw when they looked at me had all three of them wearing some version of shock and hurt, if only for a moment. Then their anger lit back up like a torch had brushed across their expressions.

 

“Yes, _home_ , you idiot. Wherever that is at this moment. Which happens to be Valhalla. We could do worse. Like this bridge,” Blitz pointed out, his face gruff. His nose wrinkled. “And you need a shower already. Did you even look where you lay down? I’m gonna have to scrub the crud out of your clothes for hours.”

 

My fingers were forming _why…_ but Blitz cut me off, his features softening just for a moment. “Because I’ll do a better job, that’s why. I didn’t give you that scarf so you could put Boston sewage all over it.” He gave my shoulder a shove. _And then we’re talking about why you’re here._

 

I felt like my face was wet. I scrubbed it with my dirty sleeve and looked down at my hand. I was expecting Elhaz, the rune of protection.

 

What I had was Naudiz, the rune of need. I dropped it back into the pouch, then stuffed my hands in my pockets, steadfastly avoiding everyone’s mouths and fingers with my eyes.

 

We made our way to the ducks. I could have continued running, but I knew in my heart that would just be a waste of everyone’s time and resources. Sam and Magnus didn’t have the luxury of spending that sort of energy chasing me. Blitz might get hurt.

 

Could I have been wrong?

 

No, I was sure. He had looked so grim.

 

Well, I could stay out of his way just as well in plain sight, I supposed. It would just be harder for me. He felt responsibility toward me, they all did. It warmed my heart and irked me at the same time. I was supposed to be a protector, not the protected.

 

We stepped through onto the World Tree, and made our way by the branches back to Valhalla.

 

__

 

Both Sam and Magnus gave Blitz meaningful looks that made him look nervous when we got back to Magnus’ room.

 

_I thought we’d been through this,_ Blitz signed at me. _You. Me. We’re family. Real family, not like those jerks back in Alfheim who don’t know something special when they see it._

 

I nodded obediently. There’s family, and there’s family. Magnus and Sam were family. Blitz is…

 

Sam and Magnus shared a glance, then both of them gave me separate hugs, despite the fact that I smelled like fish factory runoff. Sam’s face when she pulled back at least acknowledged she’d done more pleasant things in her life. “You listen to him,” she told me, her mouth firm.

 

Magnus patted me on the shoulder, a half-smile on his face. “Please don’t do that again,” he said.

 

Guilt was sliding its way around my stomach. He’d had enough heartache of his own without me adding to it.

 

_Sorry,_ I signed. _I thought I had to go._

 

_Why would you ever think you had to go anywhere without us?_ Magnus’s face was disbelieving.

 

My gaze shifted sideways to Blitz before I could correct it.

 

Magnus looked sympathetic, but I didn’t know how he could possibly understand. Unless Blitz had talked to him about it?

 

“Look, I’m going to…I’m going to go for a bit. But I’m coming back, and then we’re hanging out, okay?”

 

I owed him more than that. He just jumped realms for me. I was stupid. How would I have felt if Magnus had gone off suddenly like I had? In hindsight, my grand exit wasn’t as a good idea as I had thought.

 

When I had been alone, I could come and go anywhere as I pleased.

 

I preferred being held accountable like this. Even if it hurt more.

 

Magnus left with Samirah, and then it was just me and Blitzen. His shoulders were squaring up, just the way they had before I chose to leave.

 

I closed my eyes, bracing myself.

 

My eyes shot open at a gentle palm on my cheek. Blitz’s hands were soft, but there were small callouses from all his work with needles and thread and the other various tools he used to create his masterpieces.

 

I couldn’t read his face at all, beyond that he didn’t look like he was about to shove me out to live on my own.

 

“Hearthstone, I…” He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I’m a coward. I should have just said what I meant to.”

 

_I’m scared to know,_ I signed hesitantly.

 

Blitz looked like I had slapped him. He drew himself up. “Well, here goes,” he muttered, his lips not quite forming the words clearly.

 

I couldn’t quite believe I saw his fingers correctly.

 

His lips were quirked, but it was like they didn’t know whether to be happy or self-deprecating.

 

He repeated himself, this time with his mouth.

 

“Please stay with me,” he finished, his face looking a little desperate. “Forever, in fact. Does that work?”

 

I would apologize to him later for how I smelled. I reached forward and pulled him into me, then grabbed his cheeks, my fingers sliding into his neat beard, and kissed him.

 

_‘I love you,’_ he had signed. _‘Please, I love you.’_

 

He grabbed my head like I had plans to go anywhere else. Not likely. He slid his tongue into my mouth, and I should have been less surprised, but really, I had no practice at this. He jerked back, eyes raking over my face, then smiled at me.

 

It was one of those gentle, joyous smiles. I smiled back at him, and his face brightened even more.

 

It was like the sun.

 

But why was I holding that back?

 

_You’re like the sun,_ I signed at him.

 

I think he got how I meant it. His face was shocked, then happy again. I was too nice to point it out, but yes, his cheeks were a little wet, too.

 

My hands were shaking, but I managed to pull out two runes. They’d say this better than I could.

 

The first was appropriate, if a little embarrassing. Kenar. Fire, physical passion. He gave me a leer. I didn’t mind it, but that didn’t mean I knew how to deal with it, either. I was sure my ears were green and hot with a blush. I looked down quickly and pulled out the second.

 

Othala. Hearth, home, and family.

 

“Yeah, buddy,” Blitz said, but he looked off-kilter and dazed. “Now you get it.”

 

He looked me over, drawing a thumb across my cheek. “I didn’t know how you’d react. You’ve been given a hard enough time and I didn’t want to add to that.”

 

_I’m sorry,_ I said. _I should have been braver._

 

Blitz kissed me again, then hugged me so hard I couldn’t breathe.

 

_You’re the bravest Elf I know,_ he said.

 

I pointed at him, but he just grabbed my hand and kissed it.

 

Then pulled a face and spat on Magnus’s grass floor.

 

He made a word that wasn’t a word with his mouth then shoved me toward the bathroom.

 

_Sorry,_ I signed again. I stopped in my tracks, realizing something.

 

_I love you,_ I turned to him. I needed to say that. I hadn’t yet. I couldn’t just hide behind my runes. They said a lot, but they weren’t my own words.

 

“I’ll come with you,” Blitz decided. “Also, you need to brush your teeth. See how much I love you? I kissed the half of Boston you have there on your face.” He started to gripe, but left off quickly, his expression softening.

 

I grinned, and took his hand, our fingers intertwining.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Lady Saika over at Lady Geek Girl and Friends posted a review of my fanfic! *_* You can read it [ here!](https://ladygeekgirl.wordpress.com/2015/10/23/fanfiction-fridays-vocabulary-by-genuinelies/)
> 
> *fans self*


End file.
